Case Study: EDINA Digimap achieves faster, scalable and more reliable national web mapping for the education sector with Cadcorp

EDINA Digimap - national web mapping for the education sector

EDINA Digimap, the JISC‑funded national data centre based at the University of Edinburgh, provides web access to Ordnance Survey and other geographic datasets for nearly 150 UK higher and further education institutions. Faced in 2008 with rapid growth (30,000–35,000 OS map requests per day and demand doubling annually) and a system at capacity, EDINA ran a year‑long tender and selected Cadcorp’s Map Modeller and GeognoSIS as the replacement platform for stability, scalability and integration with other data sets.

Cadcorp supplied licenses for GeognoSIS and Map Modeller and helped EDINA build a new Digimap stack (PostGIS, TileCache/MapServer, OpenLayers/MapFish UI) that met rigorous benchmarks. The Cadcorp‑powered service has delivered major gains in speed, stability and print flexibility—has been 100% reliable since launch—and has rendered in excess of 30 million maps to populate caches and serve dynamic custom maps, delivering clear cost and operational benefits while enabling future expansion of Digimap.

Edina Digimap

David Medyckyj-Scott

Manager of Research and Geodata Services